Your deferred benefits can be paid on ill health grounds at any age if: |
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A scheme-approved doctor determines that your medical condition would have prevented you from carrying out the duties of your old job right up until age 65. But if you left the scheme on or after 01/04/2008, the doctor must also determine that you have no prospect of taking up *‘gainful employment’ for at least 3 years, or before age 65 if this is sooner.
(*gainful employment is a job of at least 30 hours for at least 12 months)
If the doctor and your former employer agree that you qualify for payment of your benefits on ill health grounds, we would pay them in full ie we do not apply early retirement reductions even if we are paying your benefits before the date shown on your personal statement. But we will not increase your benefits each year in line with inflation until your 55th birthday, unless you have been judged to be too ill to work at all.
Your deferred benefit update shows the earliest date your benefits can be paid in full. The date shown will be anywhere between age 60 to 65 depending on when you joined the scheme and how much membership you had built up by the time you left.
Usually you will be offered payment of your benefits at age 60, even if the date shown on your personal statement is later. But if you decided to draw your benefits before the date on your statement, we will reduce them as we would be paying them early.
We normally write to you about 6 weeks before your 60th birthday to let you know how much your benefits are worth and to ask if you would like us to pay them to you. If reductions for early payment apply, we will tell you the reduced amount of benefits as well as the unreduced amounts that would be payable on the date shown on your personal statement. We provide information about the standard benefit package available from the scheme but we also tell you about the other choices you may have if, for example, you wanted to take a bigger lump sum by reducing your pension. If you paid Additional Voluntary Contributions (AVCs) whilst a member of the scheme, we will also provide you with information about the payment options for that fund too.
Circumstances where we do not automatically offer payment of benefits at age 60
We will not automatically offer payment of a deferred benefit at age 60 in the following circumstances (apart from where we have been told to pay them by your former employer on ill health or compassionate grounds):
- You left the scheme on or before 31/03/98, the payment date shown on your personal statement is after age 60 and you are paying into the scheme on your 60th birthday in respect of another job. Where this applies, you can ask for payment of your deferred benefits within 3 months of leaving your continuing job (but if you don’t, there will be no further opportunity to do so) or we will pay them automatically on the date shown on your personal statement.
- If you have opted out of the scheme, we cannot pay the benefits that are on hold with us until you have left your job.
- If your annual pension is £12 or less and the payment date on your personal statement is after age 60, we will pay your benefits at that time unless you contact us and ask us to pay them at age 60 (although they will normally be reduced for early payment).
Payment of your deferred benefits before age 60 is only possible with the permission of your former employer or, in ill health cases, if you meet the qualifying criteria.
 Payment on ill health grounds
Left the scheme on or before 31/03/98?
You can ask your former employer to release your benefits early on compassionate grounds from age 50 (rising to age 55 from 01/04/2010) but you do not have an automatic right to payment of your benefits before age 60 and there is no guarantee that your former employer will approve your request. To apply, you can write to your former employer with details of the circumstances that have led to your request. If it is approved, your benefits would be paid in full ie we do not apply early retirement reductions even if we are paying your benefits before the date shown on your personal statement.
Left the scheme on or after 01/04/98?
You can ask your former employer to release your benefits early from age 50 (rising to age 55 from 01/04/2010) but you do not have an automatic right to payment and an employer will normally only consider cases where there are exceptional circumstances. Some employers also have their own early retirement policies in place that forbid payment before age 60. To apply for early payment of your benefits, you can write to your former employer. If it is approved, we will pay your benefits but they may be reduced for early payment, although your former employer can waive those reductions on compassionate grounds.
Do you have more than one deferred benefit with different employers?
If you have deferred benefits with different employers, you would have to contact each one individually to ask for early payment, regardless of the reason you were asking ie ill health or otherwise. Each of your former employers would make their own decision as to whether your benefits can be released so there is no guarantee that the decision would be the same.
Left the scheme on or before 31/03/98?
If you choose not to take your benefits at age 60 and the payment date shown on your personal statement is later, you will have no further opportunity to ask for them to be paid but you will be offered payment on that later date. You can however, keep your benefits on hold with us right up until the day before your 75th birthday, unless you opted out of the A-Day tax changes.
Opted out of A-Day tax changes
Left the scheme on or after 01/04/98?
If you choose not to take your benefits at age 60 and the payment date shown on your personal statement is later, you still have the opportunity to ask for payment anytime up to the date shown on your personal statement. You can also keep your benefits on hold with us right up until the day before your 75th birthday, should you wish.
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